Apologies
by EllieStone
Summary: Looks like the heat is getting to everyone... Teenage Royai oneshot. Just something fun and fluffy.


"Ugh!" For the second time that afternoon, mud splattered across Roy Mustang's face. "Why can't I get this?" he moaned in frustration. He'd been kneeling in the shade at the edge of a shallow mud puddle for the better part of an hour, attempting to draw the water out of the solution. So far the closest he'd come was to create a short column of soil that promptly toppled back into the sludge, drenching him in muck.

"Are you going to spend the rest of the day making mud-pies or are you actually going to help me?" Riza asked over her shoulder from where she was watering her flowerbeds. With the light gleaming off her cropped blonde hair and her sun-burnt shoulders peeking out from beneath her sleeveless yellow sundress, she looked like the very embodiment of summer.

He sighed. "I'm not _making mud-pies. _I'm working here!" The dirt caked up to his elbows suggested otherwise.

"Did you account for the fertilizer we put down last month?"

"Yes! Unless you messed up the dilution." He leaned back against the trunk of the old dogwood tree. The hot, dry summer had not been good to it; the leaves were browning at the edges and slowly but surely dropping. Riza's flowers, too, had been suffering. At the advent of spring, she'd taken it upon herself to cultivate a small garden in attempts to brighten up the dilapidated grounds. Despite her dedicated attempts to keep them well hydrated, the arid weather had bested her for the most part, leaving only the hardiest petunias and zinnias to overcome the bare brown skeletons of lesser plants.

Riza rolled her eyes, continuing to mist her garden. "Obviously, I didn't, otherwise everything would be dead now, wouldn't it?"

"Dead?" Roy laughed. "You mean like your flowers?"

She turned sharply, hose in hand, dousing him with cold water. They stared at each other for a moment, both their eyes wide with shock, neither believing what she'd just done. And then, just as quickly, the moment was over.

Riza dropped the hose and took off running, bare feet skidding across the damp grass, laughter trailing behind her.

"Oh, no you don't," Roy growled, clambering to his feet. She had a head start, but his legs were just enough longer and he was just enough faster than her that he caught her just as she was attempting to throw open the front door.

He grabbed her around the waist and swung her away from the door, causing her to curl her limbs in around his grasp and shriek in alarm. "Put me down!" she demanded.

He laughed. "Not until you've gotten what's coming to you." She kicked her heels against his shins in protest. He sucked in a breath as one of her blows made contact. "_Damn it._" He lowered her to the ground but didn't release her as her continued dragging her back towards the flowerbeds.

"You wouldn't dare."

He tilted his head over her shoulder, smirking. "Wouldn't I?" She glared at him. Wedging a toe under the hose, he kicked it up into his hand.

"Okay! Okay!" she pleaded between fits of laughter. "I won't do it again! I promise!"

"That doesn't make up for the fact that I'm freezing cold and soaking wet," Roy answered levelly. He held the running hose casually in on hand, his other still holding tight to his teacher's daughter, albeit loose enough for her to turn and face him.

"I said I wouldn't -" A stream of water in the face cut her off. She started at the cold, jaw dropping. She shoved wet bangs out of her eyes. "I can't believe you did that." She lunged for the hose. He raised it above his head, just out of her reach. Water cascaded down on both of them. Riza crossed her arms and glowered at him.

"Your choice," Roy said. "We can both stand here and be cold and wet, or you can admit defeat and say you're sorry."

"I said I was sorry and I wouldn't do it again."

Roy directed the spray down towards her again. "Not the same." She looked at him, silently blinking water out of her eyes. "Say it. 'Roy Mustang is the master of alchemy and I'm sorry I sprayed him with the hose.'"

"I'm not saying that! I'll apologize, but you're _not _a master alchemist," she huffed. "You're just a kid playing in the mud."

He shrugged and drenched her again.

"Alright, alright. Roy Mustang," She inhaled, preparing herself. "- _is not the master of alchemy and deserved everything he got!_" And with that, she wrenched herself free from his grip and took off running once more, glancing back over her shoulder at him, grinning wildly.

"_Get back here!_" he called after her, chuckling to himself.

"_Never!_" she cried.

There was a clattering from up above as the window to Berthold's study slid open. "_Would you two shut up down there?_" Berthold blinked out at them from the darkness within. "Can't get anything done around here with you two running around screaming like loons," he muttered.

Roy skittered to a stop just a step or two behind Riza. "Yes sir," he called back.

"Sorry," Riza added sheepishly.

"And Mustang… I need you up here. As soon as you've washed off, that is." Without waiting for an answer, Berthold slammed the window closed once again. Roy and Riza looked at each other solemnly. Riza turned the water pump off before following Roy towards the door.

"I'd better go wash up, I guess," Roy said, picking at some mud that had dried onto his shirt. "This might take a while."

"Hey, _that, _at least, is your own fault. Don't even try to blame that on me," Riza chided playfully.

He sighed. "I guess I can take responsibility for that one."

"You better."

"I got it on you, too." Reaching out a hand, he gently wiped the smudge from her cheek. He smiled. "There. Beautiful."

Riza glanced at him. "Thanks," she said, opening the door. "But you're still not the master of alchemy."

* * *

**Oh look, I wrote something nearly angst-less. That's a first. But I figured even with everything going on in their lives, Roy and Riza _must _have had a couple of times where they were just kids having fun, and nothing more. So that's how that happened :) Review? Yes?**


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